It’s always nice to share what you’re tweeting about on your WordPress blog and personally I like to see what sort of thing the owner of the site tweets without having to leave their site.

Many of us are using different Twitter widgets but we’re going to look at two of the most poular ones, Twitter Widget Pro and the official Twitter Profile Widget.

For me there’s two things I want from any WordPress widget and that’s ease of use and customisability.

Although I already have the Twitter application on our fantastic Wibiya toolbar, it does require the viewer to take an extra step to at least view my tweets let alone engage with them. For that reason I decided at add a Twitter widget.

Here’s a look into our two choices……

Twitter Widget Pro

For sheer ease of use Twitter Widget Pro scores high.

Simple download and drop into whatever spot you want.

Add your account (or any account for that matter), give it a title and you’re away.

There isn’t however a great deal of customisation in terms of how that widget looks. Links and @ mentions kind of blend into one and at a quick glance it looks a bit confusing.

I do like the option of including an RSS icon but I’m not really sure how many people actually follow Twitter feeds in their chosen RSS reader.

There’s all the other options you’d hope to have such as how many items you’d like to display it perhaps it’s quite nice to hide @replies but it’s not something I’d personally worry about.

Twitter Profile Widget

With the official Twitter profile widget rather than download it you simply have to copy and paste some code into a text box.

The main preferences are nice and simple and I like the fact that you can include (or not include) Avatars, Timestamps and hash-tags.

Having a customisable appearance is really what gives the official Twitter widget the edge for me.

Everything from background, text colour and link colour is customisable and easy to match with your website or blog.

Although the length of your widget depends on how many items you choose to show having a customisable width, or indeed an auto width option is extremely helpful.

I also like the fact that it does have the official logo and the join the conversation link is a nice touch, albeit a rather subtle call to action.

Conclusion

An easy choice in the end and it has to be the official Twitter widget as it ticks all of the boxes and is still nice and easy to use!

If you haven’t head over to twitter.com/widgets as there are a lot more on offer other than the profile widget. Something that is really worth a look is the Lists Widget and the Favs Widget.

I’d love to know what you use and if you’ve found or are using anything better! You can find me on Twitter as always @memorygate